Hi Folks:

We heard through the grapevine that the Sidney Museum was being overrun with ‘bears’, so yesterday we had to go and see for ourselves.  The museum is located on Beacon Avenue in Sidney in the ‘Town Centre’ building, down in the lower level.  We walked in, flashed a badge and informed the gentleman sitting at the front desk that we were from the ‘Teddy Bear Squad’ and had received a report that they were being taken over by bears.  Having ascertained our qualifications, he ushered us right in.  Turned out it was just as we had suspected…

Teddy Bear Squad

The museum (until today, anyway) is the temporary home of some 300 teddy bears and other stuffed animals.  As is typical of these creatures, they’d managed to get themselves into mischief everywhere, hiding in display cases and working their way into the hearts and minds of children of all ages.  The pictures really tell the story.

Welcome to Sidney

Christmas Teddy

I’m a Bunny. Really!

The Craftsman

Customs Officer

Farm Girl

Of course there’s more to the museum than just teddy bears.  There are models and displays showing pioneer life, artifacts from both WWI and WWII, and a whole variety of things to see…

Native Baskets

The School Marm

Roaring Twenties…

Ship Model

Amphibious Aircraft

Sidney Sawmill

WWII Memorial

Catching Up on the Local Gossip…

Down on the Farm

Marcia Used to Do This Too!

Norseman

So, we wandered around and checked out the place quite thoroughly.  We learned lots and found that although the bears had indeed invaded the place, they were all on their best behaviour (at least while we were watching…)  Quite surprising to us was that of the 282 ‘kids’ that we have, and the 300+ bears that were on display, we only found two ‘siblings’ – those that were the same.  Ours are named Nicolas and Ginger Belle.  Not sure what their siblings’ names are.

We also discovered that starting this weekend there’s going to be a LEGO display at the museum.  Oh well… an inspector’s work is never done it seems.  Now, where’s that other badge?

Mike.

P.S.  Being in Sidney gave us the excuse opportunity to wander through Sidney’s 11 bookstores again.  We told people we were looking for ONE specific book for our son, but… oh, there are so many and they’re all so tempting!  We also dropped into the Fresh Cup Roastery Café for lunch, a calzone and one of their most delectable cinnamon buns.  They’re definitely worth a taste!